Those of us brought up in the high-rise, low-expectation housing projects surrounding Paris will have our very own Norman Tebbit-style nationality test this summer. Thanks to both France and Algeria qualifying for the football World Cup finals it's going to be a straight choice between blue and green - Les Bleus representing our parents' adopted homeland, or Les Verts from the former colony where they were born.
Both countries qualified for the competition on the same night last month, with wild celebrations on the Champs Elysées apparently conforming to the "troubled communities" cliché which currently dominates French thinking. First generation North African immigrants from les banlieues could not, according to the Paris establishment, accept the tricolour's dominance over the star and crescent moon flag of Islam. Instead there were loud choruses of "One, two, three, Viva l'Algérie", much provocative horn blowing, and the dastardly firing-up of a couple of wheelie bins before the riot squads of the secular Fifth Republic moved in with their truncheons and tear gas.
Such predictable scenes will be repeated across France as next summer's sporting extravaganza unfolds, convincing Nicolas Sarkozy that Tebbit's "cricket test" of 1990 was spot on. Then British Asians were encouraged to cheer for England rather than India or Pakistan during tense bat-and-ball internationals, while this time round the president will expect us all to rally behind the one, true France.
Ridiculously simple, of course, but that's the way it is in my country at the moment. A massively divisive National Identity Debate is doing more to stir up anger and resentment than any dunderheaded football yob ever could. Intended to reaffirm "pride in being French", it is accompanied by a drive to make schoolchildren sing La Marseillaise, and to get adults to take civic tests to which the multiple choice answers are always "Charles de Gaulle", "Austerlitz" or "1998".
Sarkozy honestly believes that banal exams and sports fan-style shouting matches will uncover the "core values" which bind us. If those of us originating from overseas can see beyond the unemployment, discrimination and other social problems blighting our suburban ghettoes then - the reasoning goes - we will feel more like integrated citizens.
In fact, there are thousands of Algerians who support the French football team, just as a vast majority of the country's six million Muslims are committed to republican values and laws. Many of those on the Champs Elysées were celebrating two World Cup qualifications, with the "Allez les Bleus" chant as prevalent as its Algerian equivalent. Zinedine Zidane, the World Cup hero, is typical of the kind of Frenchman with North African antecedents who remains happy in both camps. Like many Muslims, "Zizou" believes he can be a fan of any team he chooses yet still remain faithful to his culture and beliefs.
The premise of Sarkozy's argument, in contrast, is that there is only one team, one identity, and therefore one loyalty. The level of the debate he has inspired can be found in the torrent of racial abuse which has flooded an internet site especially opened by Eric Besson, the immigration and national identity minister. In true Gallic style, it was meant to spark the discussion with interesting philosophical and sociological observations. Instead the most noteworthy contributions to date have included comments like "France is for Christians" and "Being French means eating pork and not wearing a burqa".
This boorish, simplistic lead was naturally followed by Sarkozy, who wrote a column on the front page of Le Monde encouraging all devout French people "to practise their religion in humble discretion". The warning - and that's what it was - was clearly directed at troublesome Muslim communities, with Sarkozy even praising the Swiss for trying to ban minarets.
Such pettiness prompted Sarkozy's erstwhile political ally, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the former prime minister, to describe the identity debate as a "bar-room discussion" with "no intellectual rigour". Far from being a "noble device" aimed at pulling the country together, he suggested it was designed to win Sarkozy support among xenophobic and racist voters disillusioned by the ailing National Front party before the coming regional elections.
It won't work. People can't be defined as one-dimensional. Suggesting otherwise is like trying to see the world in blue and green.

(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk)